The invention pertains to a supply station for positioning enclosures on an enclosure-collating path of a mail-processing installation.
Known supply stations contain in a housing or in a frame part of the installation a magazine housing for inserting a stack of enclosures. The magazine housing has in its lower front region in the enclosure withdrawal direction a cutout through which the lower and, relative to the enclosure withdrawal direction, front part of a stack of enclosures is uncovered.
By means of a cyclically actuable vacuum sucker arrangement installed below the enclosure magazine, the particular lowermost enclosure is bent downward, provided that it is flexible enough, at its front part in the enclosure withdrawal direction, and then assumes a position in which it is gripped by a gripper of a supply arrangement, for example, the gripper claws of a gripping arm that can be swiveled back and forth, and is then pulled out in an arc-like movement of the gripper under the remaining stack of enclosures and can be placed upon an enclosure compartment of an enclosure collating path of a mail-processing installation.
However, if enclosures with relatively little flexibility are to be processed in the supply station, then such enclosures, e.g., booklets, thin books, catalogs, folders made of fine cardboard, etc., cannot be bent downward by a vacuum sucker arrangement at the lower end of the magazine housing.
To process such enclosures, known supply stations are therefore used in which the base of the magazine housing is inclined in accordance with the direction in which the mouth of the gripper that is ready to withdraw the enclosure opens, and the comparatively inflexible enclosure is pushed forward by means of pusher arrangements acting upon the back of the lowermost enclosure in the enclosure withdrawal direction so that the front edge, in the enclosure withdrawal direction, of the particular enclosure can be gripped by the gripper.
The changing-over of a mail-processing installation to equip it with supply stations of either the first or second types described above is time-consuming. The costs also increase for a mail-processing installation in which supply stations with substantially different design features have to be held ready.